INTERNATIONAL COMPETITION OF CONTEMPORARY CERAMIC ART IN FAENZA

57th Premio Faenza

For the third consecutive edition the International Competition of Contemporary Ceramic Art in Faenza is dedicated to young artists under 40. Several considerations contributed to lead to this choice. The main consists in the will to favour the new actors of an ever-changing scene which is more and more complex. It is the confidence in new proposals that this Competition wish to confirm and to promote further on. Certainly it is not a painless choice because of the forced exclusion of researches and excellences which exceed the generation limit. In a context of free participations, the Jury considered the different levels of development that the ceramic research is reaching in western and far eastern areas, from where the main part of the entries come. The first area is more interested in the free narration, in the reconsideration of itself and in an uninhibited relationship with other artistic events, the second is more solidly lied to the disciplines even if it expresses the novelty of an innovative dialogue with the space of works which are often centripetal and self-referential. Having realized the great validity of the proposals, the Jury – made up of Claudia Casali (Director of the International Museum of Ceramics in Faenza), Franco Bertoni (Past Curator of the modern collections of the International Museum of Ceramics in Faenza), Giuliana Ericani (Director of the Bassano del Grappa Museum, Library and Archive), Richard Slee (artist, Great Britain) and Giorgio Laveri (artist, Italy) – decided to give relevance to the diversities through the assignation of two Faenza Prizes, one of that ex.aequo.

“Premio Faenza” awarded to Shigeki Hayashi for the work Koz-o Type R The work presents a high technical execution that intentionally reaches mimetic abilities towards the other materials and communicate through an innovative language in the field of an icon expressed by the media belonging to the original country of the artist. Ex aequo to the artists Eri Dewa with the work “Core” and Giovanni Ruggiero with the work “Corrispondenze cosmiche”. The first interprets the solidity of porcelain and of the drawing material to which the group of works are oriented, in impalpable ways and reaching effects of great delicacy, lightness and transparency. The second poetically interprets the relation between man and universe using a cohesion of means which reach a strong integration between language and technique. Cersaie Prize to the artist Tomoko Sakumoto with “Form 101 Form 7”. The work stands out in an original technical research devoted to simple forms both concave and convex to which the artist confers a great elegance and refinement in the drawings and in the colors – absolutely not traditional – sensibly following the shape. “Monica Biserni Prize” to Silvia Zagni with the work Opera 1; Honour Prize of the President of the Italian Republic to Cristina Simona D’Alberto with the work Incubazione; Honour Prize of the President of the Senate of the Italian Republic to Abdon Zani with the work OOPS!; Honour Prize of the President of the Chamber of Deputies to Ismet Yuksel with the work Poor Timing; Prize of the Emilia Romagna Region to Lana Rakanovic with the work The show must go on; Prize of the Council Board of Emilia-Romagna Region to Hsuan-Yu Shih with the work Chinese ink carousel; Medal of the Lions Club Faenza Host to the artist Cristiano Tassinari with the work Object oriented object; Medal of the Rotary Club Faenza to Charlotte Falcini with the work Double helice /White twin propeller; Medal in memory of Eleuterio Ignazi dedicated to a young artist to Gionata Ranzoni with the work Terre;Medal of D'A Magazine devoted to a young artist participatingto Inhwa Lee (Korea) with the work Shadowed white oil lam series.

Even within the limits of a selection carried out in a free competition modality, the scenery that the 57th International Competition of Contemporary Ceramic Art in Faenza offers is certainly representative of the different trends that nowadays are emerging in the ceramic-artistic field. Young artists have the responsibility to define it better in the next editions and the International Museum of Ceramics in Faenza has to show the ambition to carry out significant selections together with international experts who, as the ones of the present edition, are careful and sensitive to the new destinies of ceramic art.